The Results Are In!

[brittsnbirds]

When I was down at BSSP the last day I stopped in the shop and asked Eric what the final counts were. There was a noticeable decrease in ticket sales from 2007. I found the count on Weaver's website the other day and thought I would do the math.

The numbers below are based on Adult tag sales down 8930 and children sales down 1770. Total loss of sales 10,700 tags.

2007 Adult $408,068.00 Children $48,694.00 Total sales $458,162.00

2008 Adult $382,278.00 Children $45,214.00 Total sales $427,492.00

Loss Adult $26,790.00 Children $3,480.00 Total loss 2007 to 2008 $30,670.00

I wonder how this will affect the 2009 trout stocking. I asked one of the hatchery managers last year how they determined how many fish were released. He told me it was based on the previous years tag sales. If that is the case we are in trouble for 2009!

Makes you wonder what the future holds.

Pat

[Trout Stalker]

I would think that they would take a look at gas prices and decide what they would should do at that time. The price of fuel is what killed me.

[oneshot]

Gas Prices and the weather.I mean heck with all the rain people didn't know what to do.

oneshot

[flyfishingtaz]

it takes me about 4hrs to get to taney from columbia,mo. If they're gonna limit the number of fish by the number of tags sold, I dont think that will really be a problem. Now, if they limited the number of fish, by the actual number of visits to the water, then yes, I would agree that we're in for some hard fishing in '09

[fishinwrench]

I would hope that it would NOT effect the 2009 season stocking in a noticably negative way.....$427,492.00 for tag sales alone, is STILL a lot of money. And lets not forget that Catch and Release, even during the regular season is becoming more popular and practiced each year. You don't see guys carrying stringers of fish out of there like you used to, I myself only kept about 10-12 fish from the park all year...and I have a stack of tags 2 times thicker than a hardback copy of Trout Bum.

[laker67]

From what I understand, the same thing occured in "07". You guys that fish bennett, how did it effect this past season as far a fish numbers?

[brittsnbirds]

laker-

It is hard to measure 07 to 08 as the water conditions were totally different. I know I was at Bennett or Montauk at least 4 days out of each open month in 07 due to the better fishing conditions. However in 08 the season was changed due to 7 different floods. Personally the high water caused me not to go as often. The gas crunch did not affect my decision to go down. It just caused me to work more side jobs to off set the difference.

I wonder if the other trout parks were effected as much?

Pat

[laker67]

laker-

It is hard to measure 07 to 08 as the water conditions were totally different. I know I was at Bennett or Montauk at least 4 days out of each open month in 07 due to the better fishing conditions. However in 08 the season was changed due to 7 different floods. Personally the high water caused me not to go as often. The gas crunch did not affect my decision to go down. It just caused me to work more side jobs to off set the difference.

I wonder if the other trout parks were effected as much?

Pat

You are right Pat. I only considered the gas prices of 07 and 08. I completely overlooked the flooding problem. Thanks for your comments.

[trout fanatic]

Yep, I only made it down to Bennett twice this year and it was solely due to the flooding in the first part of the year. The rest of the year it seemed like the rain waited till my days off then dumped on me. 2008 was indeed a very wet year, hopin for a better 2009. I don't even have much winter time tyin to do this year (boxes runneth over)-but I'll get over it and tie some up anyway lol

[Paola Cat]

2007 was more enjoyable for me than 2008. Britt mentioned the 7 blow-outs. The water conditions just didn't stabilize until the end of the year. I expect my numbers of fish were about the same .... though I didn't keep a journal this year. It took a different strategy/technique this year and you had to be adaptable. For a big part of the year the fish were at the bottom of the water column .... which called for some chucking and ducking. Then they went through this picky small pattern preference thing for awhile. Finally by the end of the year we were back to "normal" patterns. 2007 was not a typical year for dries, CBs, and SHs. I give these a "below average" until the last part of the season. Overall I'd give 2008 an "average" for numbers and a "below average" for conditions. As far as the number tags sold being down .... you could have fooled me! It seemed to me like the crowds were above average most of the times I ventured into the park. PC